Whew!

It's been a fast week. One of Saori's high school friends whom she hasn't seen since high school, was touring the US on vacation with her boyfriend. They are both Japanese and spent a few days in NY before deciding to come visit Saori in Phoenix over going to LA. They brought me a surprising amount of stationary/office items from Muji, which was really nice of them.
Their first night here, Saori took them to Filibertos for dinner. Then the next day, she took them up to the top of south mountain where they were astounded by the raw desert beauty and exposed rock. Afterwards, Scottsdale fashion square and old town Scottsdale before finishing the evening at Malee's on Main. Yesterday, she drove them up to Sedona where they wanted to know where the Big Mountain Thunder Railroad was. Apparently, Sedona is a very hot destination to the Japanese. Last night, was their last night here before flying back to Japan, and so I made foccacia and ravioli dinner. Saori's friend's boyfriend, Yamada, traded me his hoodie, which had a really cool print, for my ASU tee shirt. Apparently, both of them are fans of American Football, and Yamada used to play as a linebacker in a Japanese club team.

Anyway, we dropped them off at the airport around 4 AM and then I was up again at 8 to go help Jaime with another volunteering thing at the superstition farms. We pounded tires, mixed mortar, and laid a few rows of cans in the can walls, and then I picked up some fresh milk and cheese and ice cream for the ride home.

Road Trips

Some interesting events from this week: Ahem,

Thursday was the summer solstice and me and a coworker went to see solar noon at the Burton Barr library. The library, which was a collaboration between Will Bruder, DWL, Rick Joy, Wendell Burnette, and many others, has a top floor which is about 30 feet clear to the roof, which is a floating roof, suspended on cables tied to columns. This floating roof means that there is a gap between the roof and the walls on either side. At solar noon, the sunlight washes directly down the concrete walls, all the way to the floor. There was a big crowd. Bruder was there, and gave a speech about the library as a "solar temple", as was as my sketching teacher and a classmate who now works for Bruder. Another Philipino guy who used to work for DWL, and did a lot of the drawings for the library showed us around after the event, and gave us a bunch of stories about its design and construction.

Friday, Chase came to town with his girlfriend, and I picked them up at the airport that evening. I actually stopped in at the "Stage and Go" lot to wait which was kind of fun. Stage and go is a bit like a drive in movie, except you just watch the flights which either say "in range" or "ready for pickup." I thought it was kind of strange, especially since it usually takes about twenty minutes after your plane lands to get you your luggage at sky harbor. Anyway, they were very impressed with the Prius, and I was happy to show it off to them. Chase took us out to Trader Vic's in Scottsdale, a restaurant he's been craving for awhile. We went here the last time he was in town, actually. We had some minor problems finding it as neither one of us could remember where it was exactly, and we ditched the valet service since I'd have to explain how to operate the car. It was a good evening, we hit the Valley Ho lounge for some drinks while we waited, (they didn't know how to make an Aviator, unfortunately for Chase). Food was really good, great appetizers of steak on small skewers which are served rare and can be flamed over sterno to doneness. I had the bbq pork chop, and Chase bought a round of Mai Tais, which were incidentally invented at Trader Vics.

Saturday morning, Saori (pronounced like saudi, but instead of a d, use a slightly rolled r) and I drove up to Sedona to meet some friends. We drove up the long way, by way of Payson, and up through the Rim. I really much prefer to take the longer, more beautiful roads over the straight shot through hell I-17. Our friends had gone camping the night before, and we called when we got up there and planned to meet at Slide Rock park.

When we got to Slide rock, the entrance was blocked by a massive line of cars and police turning new cars away. We finally found a parking spot on the side of the road in a turnout over half a mile away near the campsites. Sedona was packed this weekend. I've seldom seen so many people packed into a single place in Arizona. Slide rock was crammed full of people, families, screaming children, everyone. My experiences and preferences with nature tend to be 1 on 1 or with very small groups. So I was less able to appreciate the cool water and the beauty because it felt infested with people. It was still nice to enjoy the cold water and small waterfalls though.
Saori pointed out that you can't have great natural places like this so easily accessible and NOT have tons of people go there.

Our friends never showed up though, they were turned away in their cars and decided not to try to find parking elsewhere. It was ok. We really enjoyed the drive up. Driving back into town on the I-17, my eyes began to burn a bit, and I absent mindedly rubbed them with my hand. Instantly the burning began to get worse and worse and I began tearing up and blinking. It was a bad time, especially since there was no place to turn off and traffic was intesifiying as we approached the outer limits of Phoenix. It became difficult to keep my eyes open, and finally I pulled out onto an access road and parked in a construction site. We washed my eyes out repeatedly and washed off my hands. My eyes were totally bloodshot, although the water flushed out or diluted whatever was burning them. Saori drove the rest of the way back, although we stopped off at Chino Bandito since we were in the Neighborhood.